health

Honey has a ton of uses! Like many other items we find in our kitchen, it can be used to nourish, heal, or simply make our bodies aesthetically more beautiful. Not just any honey will do. Raw honey is the best since it hasn’t been processed and contains natural enzymes, yeast, and pollen — not all honey contain these naturally occurring ingredients, especially not the honey in a bear found in most grocery stores. Also, raw honey’s visual characteristics are quite different. Since it has not been subject to heat processing it has a creamy, smooth texture much like margarine. It’s rich texture means less drippies. This makes it a great addition to your beauty products and overall regimen.

DEEP CONDITIONER
Honey is a natural humectant, it draws moisture into whatever it is applied to. Spoonfuls of this golden goodness can be added to your deep conditioner to increase it’s ability to retain moisture in your strands. Honey can also be used as a base to create a simple, yet moisturizing deep conditioner using these 3 ingredients:

1/2 honey

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbs coconut oil

SKIN MOISTURIZER
Similar to how honey interacts with hair, it does the same for skin. A beauty routine which includes the use of a honey mask is bound for supple, soft results. Consider using alone or with an additive for a little exfoliation. Nutmeg & Honey Facial Mask is my own personal recipe, used every week. Hyper-pigmentation fading is also a known benefit of using honey.

SKIN HEALER
A different variety of honey, which has superior external healing, is manuka honey. Within this honey, many naturally occurring compounds are contained, such as hydrogen peroxide, methylglyoxal, and dihydroxyacetone all contribute to it’s antibacterial property. This makes it excellent for topical use, healing minor cuts, burns, wounds, and acne. For this reason some manuka honeys are considered medical-grade honey.

Manuka honey is also marketed for use in many other conditions. These include:

Preventing and treating cancer

Reducing high cholesterol

Reducing systemic inflammation

Treating diabetes

Treating eye, ear, and sinus infections

Treating gastrointestinal problems

But the evidence is limited on whether or not manuka honey is effective for these conditions.

Not all honeys earn the right to be called manuka honey. Honey producers developed a rating to identify the potency using UMF (Unique Manuka Factor). The higher the number the more potent. Ref: WebMD

SUGAR SUBSTITUTE
Most practitioners, within the medical community, will tend to agree that regular consumption of white sugar is harmful to the human body. And if they are being completely honest, most of the sugar substitutes are much more harmful. Instead, honey is a great sugar substitute for drinks, smoothies, and baked goods. A less expensive, raw honey works well for this purpose.